Website Care Plans

You certainly can update your own WordPress core files, plugins, and themes if you have the time and know-how. But please be sure to fully educate yourself on the how and why first. It's extremely important to have a reliable and restorable backup before making any updates. There may be design features or site functionality that was built based on one version of the software, which is not compatible with an updated version. If anything goes wrong during an update, it may break your site. This is not to scare you, just a word of caution from someone who has come to the rescue of many broken websites over the years.

Plaid Gorilla takes care of many websites each month, and we keep up on industry news, we're informed as to when certain updates are critical or have known issues so we can take appropriate steps to protect our clients' websites.

So, when all goes well, making updates and backups can be a straightforward task. But if you're making your own updates, it's extremely important to understand how to be prepared to recover your site if things do go wrong.

We can help you figure it out. Just ask! Every level offers the essential backup and security you need for your website. On top of the basics, each level offers different features like monthly reports and security, but the key difference between each level is how much dedicated time you get from us per month for updates and consulting.

If you have a full-featured website, do external advertising (print or digital), have frequent news or articles to share, post regularly on social media, offer specials and promotions, organize events, and do a lot to promote your business, you will definitely benefit from the higher levels of support because we'll have more time to collaborate and develop a strategy for your website, Local SEO and other efforts.

Your monthly support time can include content updates, design, troubleshooting, and anything that we fit within your support time. 

Just keep in mind that requests like adding new features, creating custom graphics, writing content, and other larger tasks require a separate quote because these typically take longer than the support time included in our standard Care Plans. 

An annual website tune-up is a hands-on review of your website's functionality and design to make sure everything is in good shape. It includes:

• • Visual review of every page on your website to make sure the navigation, layout, and design are consistent and nothing is out of place

• • Overview of your website content to alert you if the content is out of date (such as old coupons, outdated class schedules, etc.)

• • Checking links on your site to make sure they are working, and correcting any that are broken.

• • Inventory and review of your website features make sure they are still working well for your needs

• • Audit of plugins used to make sure they are still being maintained by their developers

• • Testing contact forms to check you are receiving website inquiries at your preferred email address

If we discover problems on your website that we can't fix within the allotted plan time, we will provide an estimate with a 20% discount on our standard rate.

On its own, a website tune-up for a standard business site is $300.

Yes, if you are a current Plaid Gorilla client and are handling all your content updates in-house, we can certainly do just a basic Maintenance Package for you. The price will range from $60-500/mo (depending on the size and features of your website) and is payable by monthly subscription.

The package includes:

• WordPress security monitoring and backups
• Core & plugin updates
• Tech support for security issue
• License renewal for select premium plugins.

It does not include any content updates, support time, or annual tune-up services. Support time will be billed hourly rate of $125/hr.

The purpose of setting up security on your website is preventative care, so it's unlikely for your site to get hacked. But if something does happen, we will assist in the restoration and cleanup to get everything back to normal. If the hack repair requires 3rd party expertise such as Sucuri or other services, we will cover up to $250 in these costs (no more than 1x per year). 

This is a common fear for clients, but don't worry, everyday type of content changes will not break your site. You may cause a formatting issue, but that's usually something we can easily fix and provide you guidance as to what to do next time. Quick fixes like this are included in any plan that includes monthly editing time. If it's not a quick fix, we will use one of your backups to restore a saved version and get your site back up and running.

Monthly time does not roll over. It is there to reserve your place in our schedule for dedicated time and resources. We'd like to encourage you to update your website regularly -- at least once per month. Doing so helps your customers see your business active and current, and it also helps with behind-the-scenes things like search engine rankings.

If you have website requests that require more than your dedicated monthly time, we'll let you know. Sometimes tasks can be re-prioritized, and scheduled for the following month. For larger requests, we'll send you an estimate and get your approval before proceeding. If you have a backlog of requests or some bigger projects in mind, we'll chat about how best to move forward, whether it's upgrading to a higher plan (with more features, benefits, and dedicated time), or starting a separate project quote for that particular need.

A plugin is a tool for WordPress that adds special functionality. Faribault Web has a developer license for the premium plugins which we are authorized to use on client websites. Purchased individually, these would cost approximately $500 annually per website.

We don't use all plugins on all clients websites, but here are some examples of the premium plugins annual license renewals we include in our Care Plans:

• WP Rocket
• CleanTalk
• Gravity Forms and Add-Ons
• Page Builder & Add-Ons
• SEOPress Pro
• Envira Gallery
• Review & Reputation Management
• Schema Pro

If your website has specialized functionality such as a directory, store, or events calendar, there may be additional premium plugins that require a separate annual renewal.